The Jinderis massacre … A “suspicious” investigation by the Turkish occupation and an attempt to cover up the crime

Qamishli – Ali Omar

More than ten days after the massacre of Jinderis in the countryside of Afrin, in Northwestern Syria, in which four Kurdish civilians were killed and three others severely injured at the hands of the „Jaysh Ash-Sharqiya“, which is affiliated with the Turkish occupation on the eve of Nowruz, massive popular demonstrations and demands from local and international human rights organizations and many official bodies and entities emerged. They indeed demanded the opening of a fair investigation into the massacre by bringing those responsible for the perpetration of the massacre to justice so they can receive their punishment.

The factions behind this incident, the occupation and the “Syrian Coalition” announced the start of investigations in this regard, and activists and human rights defenders say that the results are known and come in one framework, namely being reduced to the criminal aspect and that the massacre was carried out through individual practices of the perpetrators.

Sources from inside the Afrin region reported that a “judicial committee” affiliated with the Turkish occupation and headed by “Taha Al-Rashwani”, with six members of the “military police” visited the house of the Newroz victims in the Jenderes district, in the context of an investigation, conducted by the occupation authorities to find out the circumstances of the crime and to document the statements of their families. It was further stressed that the aforementioned committee forced them to sign white papers regarding their testimonies, in violation of all global judicial procedures. In addition, these investigations come in the context of the occupation’s attempt to calm public opinion in the Afrin region, especially after the massive popular demonstrations and vigils that the region witnessed, as a means of harshly condemning the massacre and demanding that the perpetrators will be brought to justice and subsequently held accountable.

A spokesman for the Afrin Human Rights Organization, Ibrahim Sheikho, said in an interview with the Target Media platform, that the local authorities in the Afrin region want to obliterate this crime by sending an investigation committee, composed of a judge and six members of the “military police” to the victims’ house to record their testimonies. He further emphasized that some of them were forced to sign white papers under the pretext of not having time to take their testimonies, which raises doubts and fears of changing and distorting the course of the investigation.

Dozens of crimes against the Kurds in Afrin without accountability

Sheikho further added that all the courts and investigation committees that are formed in the Afrin region are affiliated with the factions or the so-called “interim government” and the “Syrian coalition“. Moreover, all of them have unitary positions and stances regarding the inherent Kurdish population in Afrin since its occupation more than five years ago. Sheikho subsequently pointed out that even though dozens of crimes were committed there by the factions and settlers, no perpetrator was prosecuted, and at the same time he appealed to the international bodies to intervene immediately and carry out trials for the perpetrators and expel the factions from the villages and cities.

Syrian human rights organizations and Kurdish activists say that the Turkish occupation is working concerning the Jenderes massacre on a specific track, which is represented by the attempt to change the description of the crime from “racist” to a criminal one with individual motives for which specific members of the factions are responsible, thus obscuring the motives behind the massacre and removing it from its true course, which comes in the framework of systematic crimes aimed at displacing the inherent Kurds from their homes and changing the demographic composition of the region in favor of the agendas of the Turkish occupation, which is trying to expand its influence and extend it to new areas within the framework of what is known as the “Mili Pact” that was drawn up more than a hundred years ago.

Misleading public opinion and trying to calm it down

For his part, the Executive Director of STJ, Bassam Al-Ahmad, said in statements to Target that this is not the first time that committees have been formed to investigate the crimes which have occurred in the occupied areas in Northern Syria as all of them have not reached any results and solely aim to mislead and satisfy the general public opinion. These deeds all seek to calm the streets, whereby Al-Ahmad further points out that a committee was formed after the assassination of the activist “Muhammad Abu Ghanoum” in the city of al-Bab and investigations were opened regarding the violations of the so-called “Abu Amsha” in Afrin, all of which did not reach any results.

Turkey bears responsibility for the crimes in Afrin

Al-Ahmad considered that the opening of an investigation into the massacre and the signature of the victims’ families on white papers proves that the factions are trying not only to deny the crime and condone it, but also attempt to change its narrative and context, and perhaps show that it is a normal quarrel between people and has no racist motives or is related in any way to the celebration of Nowruz. He further expounded that local and international human rights organizations, including Syrians for Truth and Justice, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the International Commission of Inquiry, and many others, consider the Turkish presence in Northern Syria to constitute an occupation, from a legal not political point of view, and therefore Turkey, as an occupying power, has responsibilities that it must carry out, the most important of which is to prosecute and hold the factions’ members and perpetrators of crimes accountable in Afrin and elsewhere, and controlling the security there, as they can do so.

Although the Jenderes’ crime is not the first committed by the factions, affiliated with the Turkish occupation in Afrin, it sheds light on these crimes that have been going on for more than five years, and the factions behind them pushed the “Syrian Coalition” and the so-called “interim government” to try to contain the crisis and find a way out for them. However, Kurdish activists say that the directions of these local authorities coincide with the efforts of the Turkish occupation to remove the crime from its true context, especially since the real executor of it, called “Hassan al-Daba'”, a member of the “Sharqiya Army” faction, is still at large.